Financial Constraint and Investment-Cash Flow Sensitivity in the Brazilian Eletric Energy Sector Firms
Investment-cash flow sensitivity; financial constraint; eletric energy sector; investment decisions; financing
In addition to the operational routines, the financial decision-making process in companies basically involves the analysis of projects that offer the best risk-return ratio and the sources of resources to finance these investments. In this context, considering the existence of market imperfections, financing costs, as well as access to these external resources, can cause different levels of financial restrictions for companies, a fact that makes them dependent on internal resources for the execution of their projects. . The objective of this work will be, through the use of quantile regression with panel data, to analyze how financial constraints influence the investment sensitivity relationship of the cash flow in the Brazilian eletric energy sector firms in the period from 2009 to 2018. In order to ensure the appropriate specification of the models, in addition to the cash flow, will be added to the econometric model the variables tangibility of assets, financial leverage and Tobin's Q, representing the investment opportunities of firms. As a criterion for a priori classification of companies into financially restricted and unrestricted groups, the following indicators will be used: dividend distribution, size of the firm, return on investment (ROA), level of corporate governance and interest coverage index.